ElringKlinger Divests SOFC Business

Automotive supplier ElringKlinger has divested
its department that manufactured solid oxide fuel cell, or SOFC, systems. In September 2018, the business based in Dettingen, Germany, announced that it would focus on low-temperature fuel cells used in vehicles. It sold SOFC
operations, and its assets in new enerday, headquartered in Neubrandenburg, to Dresden-based
Sunfire. ElringKlinger’s chief executive, Stefan Wolf, said that “the PEM fuel
cell is among those kinds of fuel cells especially suited for vehicle
applications. It is also the kind of fuel cell that we have developed to maturity
in past years and the one we intend to improve going forward.”

Fittingly, Sunfire announced that it wanted to concentrate the development and production of residential SOFC systems in Neubrandenburg. Up until that point, the company’s main offerings had been uninterruptible power supply systems with an electric capacity of 3 kilowatts. It was also intimately involved in the design of Vaillant’s stacks for residential fuel cells. With the help of new enerday’s fuel cell expertise and its 16 staff members, the company was planning to design a new decentralized power supply system. A limited number of 500 so-called Sunfire-Home units will reportedly be marketed this year through suppliers of liquid gas.

SOFC systems in Neubrandenburg. Up until that point, the company’s main offerings had been uninterruptible power supply systems with an electric capacity of 3 kilowatts. It was also intimately involved in the design of Vaillant’s stacks for residential fuel cells. With the help of new enerday’s fuel cell expertise and its 16 staff members, the company was planning to design a new decentralized power supply[BV2] system. A limited number of 500 so-called Sunfire-Home units will reportedly be marketed this year through suppliers of liquid gas.